Saudi Arabia: Intention to speed up helicopter deal with Russianote

The Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MoDA) intends to speed up the process of concluding a helicopter deal with the Russians. The deal is for 150 helicopters, including the Mi-17 transport helicopter and the Mi-35 attack helicopter. This will certainly be at the expense of another helicopter deal the Saudis are holding talks on with the French side. The deal with the French side is for 142 helicopters, including NH-90, Tiger, Super Puma, Fennec and Cougar AS-532 helicopters. The following 408-word article included in Tactical Weekly of November 28, 2008 focuses on the Saudi helicopter programme and tells what reactivated the helicopter procurement issue.